SLIDESHOW: Match Report, Brentford 0 Doncaster Rovers 1

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Paul Goodwin
Doncaster Rovers

Published:07:40Monday 29 April 2013

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From inconsolable agony to irrepressible joy - welcome to the latest chapter in the fairy tale of Doncaster Rovers.

From a club on its knees, left battered and bruised by relegation, to one that dusted itself down and came out fighting. From zero to heroes. From one end of the pitch to the other.

Trotta hits the cross bar with a penalty in the dying seconds of the game as Rovers then score at the other end to secure promotion to the Championship

This is the story of how 17.8 crazy seconds encapsulated 12 months in time, a cataclysmic shift from a disharmonious dressing room to a Doncaster that just refuses to say die.

It features the sort of happy, unpredictable ending that you may never see the like of again. It’s scarcely believable.

And the leading character just happens to be a man who bleeds red and white. A man who was almost sacrificed to save the club - but who returned to be the one to write his name into Doncaster Rovers folklore.

First, the dejection. That sinking feeling. Like a knife through the heart, just like last year’s painful relegation, referee Michael Oliver cast the dagger when pointed to the penalty spot in the dying moments of Saturday’s tense, frenetic and thoroughly spell-binding season finale.

Then comes the sheer relief. Marcello Trotta smacks the decisive spot kick against the cross bar and gives Rovers a lifeline, just like the one offered by unsung hero Dean Saunders who laid the foundations for a fantasy football-like ending.

Next the panic sets in. The ball is ricocheting around the penalty area, hearts are in mouths, where will it end up? It’s a moment of total confusion that depicts the doubts that crept in as Saunders departed for pastures new, just how will Doncaster react?

And then the ball breaks to Billy Paynter who has his eyes on the prize and strides manfully towards his target, executing the perfect cross for the club’s longest servant to seal the deal.

Doncaster take their crown. Cue scenes of uncontrollable ecstasy.

A breakaway goal that not only marked the start of a new exciting chapter in the club’s colourful recent history, but one that portrayed the ups and downs of the last 12 months - and the sheer character and resolve of Rovers circa 2012/13.

Like they have done in the past, in much darker times, Doncaster Rovers had come back from the dead .

And they did it in the space of an unforgettable 17.8 seconds - a snapshot in time during which Doncaster went from downbeat play-off hopefuls to glorious league champions.

Little wonder then that goalscorer James Coppinger, the history maker, was lost for words.

“Words can’t really describe it,” said Coppinger, almost pinching himself at one of the most incredible endings to a season there has ever been.

“When they get the penalty you fear the worst. You’re thinking it’s the play-offs.

“And then the ball breaks and I turn around and I see Billy stood there with nobody on him. They’re all devastated about the miss and I’ve ran the full length of the pitch.

“I’ve had a word with Billy on the training pitch about him passing it more and all of a sudden it boils to down to whether he’s going to pass it!

“To be fair, he’s the made right decision.

“You just couldn’t write a better script and I’m so delighted for the lads,” he added.

“They’ve worked so hard for this. For it to finish like it did, and to be crowned champions as well, is unbelievable.

“I’m delighted for the fans, John Ryan and everyone concerned with the club.

“To go down last season in the manner we did and to come back this season and have a season like this just speaks volumes about the lads in the dressing room.

“I can’t speak highly enough of them. The desire and the commitment has been unbelievable.

“It’s a tight knit group and everyone has worked together to achieve this.”

What had gone on before, at a fervent and hostile Griffin Park, is almost rendered meaningless by the most incredible ending imaginable.

It was engrossing to watch from start to finish. Brentford bossed possession for the majority of the first half, but it was Bees keeper Simon Moore who was kept busiest by Coppinger and David Cotterill from distance.

Rovers stood strong, and as one, in the face of the expected Brentford onslaught, and appeared to have withstood the home side’s barrage as the game entered stoppage time.

And then came the minute that changed the course of history - and the moment that a bare-chested Coppinger totally lost control as he tapped Doncaster into dreamland.

“To be at the club for nine years, coming up ten, and for it to finish like that, you just can’t write that sort of script,” he said.

“For my wife and my family it’s just incredible. They’re all over the moon and it means so much to them and to myself.

“It’s an even better feeling than Wembley for me personally,” he added.

“I was saying on the bus before the game that someone could write their name into folklore, like James Hayter and Francis Tierney. People like that have their own defining moment.